It’s green (very official looking) has in big bold type just above the window with my corporation’s address in it, the words: “IMPORTANT – Annual Minutes Requirement Statement – Business Mail – Time Sensitive”. The sender – Compliance Services in Tallahassee, and just below the return address, it says “THIS IS NOT A GOVERNMENT DOCUMENT”. Seeing that it wasn’t a government document I knew it was junk mail, but it was so “official” looking that I was compelled to open it.

Inside were two pages and a return envelope, all looking suspiciously like the documents I get from the government. This one was pertaining to a corporation’s meeting of shareholders. It had my corporate name, corporate number and date, and it included the requisite Florida acts. The second page was an instruction sheet for filling out the form, very much like the government would send. Wow! Even knowing this was a scam I still got that queasy feeling in my stomach that one gets when receiving something from the government. My mind was telling me to fill out the form. That is until it said to send them $125, and the reality of it hit me. What an absolutely great scam!

So I took a moment and Googled it, and sure enough, this scam has been ongoing for a few years. They have more complaints than Carter has liver pills (if you understand that you’re probably old), but they stay just within the legal guidelines and cannot be shut down. It’s amazing. No doubt hundreds of thousands of unsuspecting entrepreneurs end up sending them money for this bogus nonsense. And why should I care? Well, aside from the fact that I think it’s unfair, in today’s world, where so many have lost their jobs and been forced to start up their own small corporation, it is likely that these poor people are Compliance Services’ victims, not large corporations. This is clearly a case of a someone taking advantage of the economy, and preying on the one’s who can least afford to be taken. This is definitely a MISS!

Compliance Service is a scam and their officers should be jailed. Of course, the entire country was scammed by executives, none of which were even scolded, let alone punished.

So what does this liberal, lefty, commie, collectivist, leaning toward Democrat think of Obamacare – it sucks!

If there is anything that will and probably should hurt Democrats in the next election, it’s Obamacare. Mind you, I truly believe that the Affordable Health Care Act has it’s merits; that the premise is sound; that the current system is unsustainable and unquestionably detrimental to the overall health of this country; and that we need more than what’s prescribed in Obamacare, but I’d settle for it if it didn’t sucs. That’s right, bottom line – it sucks!

As the saying goes, it is impossible to fly like an eagle when you’re surrounded by turkeys. And that’s exactly what he manages to do; so consistently in fact, that even die-hard liberals cringe at his appointees. And faced with overwhelming evidence of glaring incompetence, he gives a speech. Eloquent as he may be, he does nothing.

You don’t begin to build anything without first knowing you have access to the raw materials needed. That’s basic business. And yet, after years of toying with the nuances of a website that was destined for failure, she never bothered to check if the materials were there, if the providers were ready, if anyone was home! It’s not that the providers are opting out (that’s a Fox News soundbyte, so of course it’s not true), but rather that the providers never opted in. Duh! Did someone ask? According to the providers – no! Did she get fired for such blatant, gross incompetence and negligence? No! Are millions of unsuspecting customers going to pay the price for her shortcomings and failure? Yes! Absolutely yes!

I, for one, am so disgusted with the entire process of Obamacare, indirectly with the providers, and directly with Obama, that my inclination is to vote Republican – even if they run someone like … say… Sarah Palin (ugh!, barf!, gag!).

Fess up! You’re a closet curmudgeon. There is an inner Scrooge waiting to bust out and beat the livin’ hell outta the next person that tells you to have a Happy Holiday. I hear ya.

What’s so damn happy about the holidays anyway – this holiday in particular? The economy sucks, the bills are unrelenting, the price of everything has gone up and you have too damn many gifts to buy. Admit it. The thought of bitch-slappin’ Bing Crosby the next time you hear White Christmas, has crossed your mind. Oooh, that’s cold.

Blame it on Sam. Sam Walton (Walmart) of course. Okay, maybe not him alone, but his ilk that have commercialized the holidays for decades. And we’ve bought (literally) into it from cradle to grave. So you’re off the hook, you’re not responsible, it’s not your fault.

Go ahead, feel free to have a rotten friggin’ holiday

Should I use WordPress.org, or should I use WordPress.com? That’s pretty much the first question I get asked, and likely the most important question to resolve, before jumping into your first site, WordPress site.

If you do some Googling (and you should always be Googling), use the search words “wordpress.org v wordpress.com”, and narrowed your search to the last month, you will find approximately 129 million results, and you still might not find what you’re looking for. I’ll save you the trouble and help you in your decision. I am somewhat biased toward the .org world, but the decision is very much dependent on how you will be using your new site, both now and in the future, so read along and don’t be afraid to speak up. Oh, by the way, I am going to make the assumption that you have some basic understanding of what a WordPress site looks like, whether WordPress.com or WordPress.org. Here are a few sites you may want to checkout to get some ideas.

The WordPress.org sites are my projects. I’m far from a design maven, so they are fairly basic in design. The WordPress.com sites are the “blogs of the Week” that you can find by doing a little surfing through the WordPress.com community. In WordPress.com, you are a part of the WordPress.com community and your site is a sub-site of that community, so they provide you with an easy way to find others in order to see what can be done and so you won’t feel alone – I guess. But the reason for this exercise is to show you that the sites all have one thing in common, although some keen graphics may hide it a bit. They are all very box-like, regimented, and contained or confined to a degree. And that applies to either platform, and in fact any php (scripting language) platform. So if you are looking for a free flowing, flash intense, POW!, website, you’re looking in the wrong place. Those intense sites are done in HTML (another language), that isn’t modularized by nature. That’s not to say that some extremely talented WordPress designers can’t get really creative, but rather to say … you ain’t gonna get there unless you pay through the nose. And if you have any intention of including a blog (an interactive communication experience), then HTML won’t work for you. And of course, if you haven’t got much skill in designing a website, which of course brings us back to the reason you are reading this in the first place, then HTML is out of the question. Okay, we just made our first decision on the way to making our first decision, so let’s get back the the yin and the yang of it.

WordPress.com is inviting, free (mostly) and simple and quick to get started with. Sign up, Sign-In, Design, Blog. It couldn’t be simpler or faster. [BTW: WordPress isn’t the only blogging platform that is quick and easy. Before you go with WordPress.com, if ultimately that’s your decision, take a look and Blogger and Tumblr as well]. Sign up (choose a name for your site which hopefully is available, or something acceptable. Your site will be a sub-site of WordPress.com so you don’t have to buy the name, but then you don’t own it either). Sign in (within minutes, or less, of signing up, you’ll get an email confirming your new site is active, with a link for you to sign in). Design, (the platform is fairly intuitive and walks you through the layout of your new site. You don’t need any graphics (at this juncture) just lay it out and pretty it up with color). Blog. Yes, it’s that easy, and in fact you could be blogging in less than an hour. Much less. And, up to this point, it’s totally free. Let’s stop here for a second and reflect. If all you intend to use this new site of yours for is to blog about something, a hobby, a passion, family, or post your picture album or something basic like a company’s web presence, or to sell a few widgets here and there, then you’ve made your decision. WordPress.com (or Tumblr or Blogger) is for you. Enjoy it!

Oops!Not satisfied with the basics? Need to make it pop visually? Need to give it more personality? Need more doohickeys or gadgets? Need to use if for a bit of branding? Perhaps a full company site? Want to do a bit of serious selling, set up a directory, a classifieds, do coupons? Or perhaps you want your own community site for a club or church? I hear ya, but don’t abandon WordPress.com just yet. There are plenty of very popular and very successful sites that are done in WordPress.com. The only kicker is, this is where you start to pay up. From here on out, everything you want or want to do on WordPress.com, is a la carte. That’s not to say it’s still not relatively inexpensive, but it’s no longer free, the costs are getting closer to a WordPress.org site, and you are still limited. Remember what I said, you are a part of the WordPress.com community, and that is both good and bad. The good news is that their guidelines (limits) are set up to ensure that your site runs continually, smoothly, and fast (really fast), and they monitor, optimize and adjust everything to that end. But you can only take it so far, and if that is far enough for you, then your journey ends here.

Not enough, you say! You have goals, aspirations, delusions of grandeur. Okay, then we’re off to the land of WordPress …. .org.

WordPress.org is also pretty simple except you can’t go straight to your site. You first have to choose a registry, then pick out a domain name, register the domain name, choose a host, choose the level of hosting, point the domain name at the hosting account, set up a WordPress application linked to the domain name, and complete the WordPress setup process. If you do all of that right, you get to then Sign in, Sign up, Design and Blog. If the process sounds too daunting, even with my assurance that it’s really not that bad, then stick with WordPress.com and again, your journey ends here. But if your game, and you want to step up your game, then for you, the journey begins with WordPress.org.

I hope I’ve helped in answering this question, but if you need more, hop over to the WordPress Forum and see what they have to say.